Domestic Defense

Over the years, refugee problems have been at the center of national security in most countries around the world. The general perception of immigration has been regarded as a security threat that is advanced by the rapidly growing number of immigrants worldwide. The territorial dominance of the United States was the custom with respect to one of the most recent expansions of immigration laws in the United States of America (USA). It is clear in the enforcement of the immigration laws of 2006 and 2007 that the United States carried out its authority in two ways, including federal immigration laws and the routine development of immigration state programs that are not specifically relevant to immigration. The current United States migration structure allows numerous pathways for different inhabitants to enter the country for employment purposes on permanent or temporally basis. National security relates to a thought that any government should defend its citizens contrary to national or international disasters, through a projection of its power, not limited to economic, diplomacy, political, and military strength. In the history of United States, the 11th of September, 2001 terrorist attack, popularly referred to as 9/11, has been used to defend the national security with a justification to expand the execution dealings to identify and eliminate illegal immigrants; this has given rise to the enactment of policy measures that undermines the USA national security. This study will focus on the following aspects: immigration policy in the USA, national security, and the influence of the USA immigration policy on the national security. Immigration policy in the USASince the founding of the United States, immigration has been the topic of law-making. Back in 1790, the USA Legislature established a process to enable immigrants to turn into the USA residents. However, a century later due to an increasing number of immigrants the government initiated a task force with a mandate to review immigrants in search for citizenship in states. This process provided a chance to effect several changes into the USA immigration policies. The immigration policy of the USA enables to achieve several ends – it ensures diversity in the provision of admitting populaces from nations experiencing limited rates of seeking immigration to the states; it assists in uniting families living as immigrants in the United States of America; it tries to give asylum for people facing the risk of racial, religious discrimination, and the political threat in their countries. Ortega & Peri (2013) explain that the immigration policy is the most important in most countries around the world. Also, many studies indicate that absorbing and allowing immigrants to enter any country is a contentious issue which has made the international community to embrace immigration laws and subsequent reforms. Moreover, the majority of these immigrants provide significant labor in various fields such as construction, agriculture, and other critical professional services. Policy makers are required to consider in evaluating the usefulness of restricting the immigration flows in the United States (Ortega & Peri, 2013).The USA system allows for lawful entry of aliens in two ways – through permanent admission or else temporary admission, commonly referred to as immigrants and nonimmigrants respectively. In the continuous access, aliens can confer the status of being lawful permanent residents through the issuance of the green card, which allows them to be entitled to work in the USA, and, in the long run, to be authorized to apply for the United States citizenship. National securityPisleag (2016) argues that the national security concurs in several views at the international safety levels as well as in the contemporary globalization context. Globalization is highly well-thought-out as the principal driver into attaining an accord in the global security. Further, Pisleag (2016) notes that security policies that support national and international security need to face challenges initiated through historical and political legacies. It is worth to note that a real safe environment involves the following anchors – non-governmental corporations, state nations, and the international community. Conventionally, the notion of security is related to defense, military power, and safety due to the assumption that security merely linked with the interaction of military and other nations. Different states across the globe are trying to provide security within their country with applying all the necessary efforts to maximize their power in lawlessness environment (Pisleag, 2016). Currently, the worldwide immigration has prepared its way to the security agenda, North American and European states in particular. The argument of immigration as a critical security threat has advanced in conjunction with the rapid rise of immigrants worldwide (IOM, 2010). The danger of immigration to states society safety is a personal risk, which is purely dependent on the way countries define them (Weiner, 1993). Immigration is considered to pose a significant security threat to the affected countries economic security and after that effect – to its labor market. Since the USA 9/11 terrorist attacks, the concept of immigration has highly featured on ways to counterterrorism, therefore making governments tighten up their immigration policies. In defining the security issue, there is a great need to redefine the policy agendas of states of nations with a clear concept of security. Moreover, studies have indicated that there is need to have proposals to give precedence to such matters, as crime, social justice, drug traffic, human rights, and security from all forms of threats. Throughout the history of the world, the USA has always existed to protect its interests, citizens, and territories at both national and international levels. Since September 11, 2001 the USA terrorist attacks, the American government has severally launched campaigns to remain watchful and alert to signs of potential security threats. Worldwide, local and national conflicts have emerged; this has made America’s role and responsibility in ensuring its national security. Influence of USA immigration policies in national securityIn many cases, America is considered as the nation of generations and immigrants who have significantly affected the socio-economic development of the states. According to Koven & Götzke (2010), people across the world seek to become American citizens for both economic and political reasons. America has maintained to live up to its motto “Out of Many, One”, written in Latin on the Unite States seal. Alden (2016) elaborates on the need for the United States government to use the appropriate tools of immigration policy, which includes identity identification, Visas, border searches, background checks, and ensuring proper adherence and enforcement of immigration laws. Therefore, these will pave a clear way to eliminate culprits posing serious security threats to the populace of the state. Since 9/11 attacks, the international community security has justified for the expansion of necessary measures to identify and send away illegal immigrants. For example, there have been some policies that have destabilized the US national security. Back in 1980’s and 1990’s, the immigration debate focused much on national economic growth and on the consideration of the number of legal immigrants that the United States should accept (Alden, 2016). Franzblau (1997) indicates that the significant interest of the USA foreign policy is to promote national security. The USA policies concerning immigration from Cuba suggest that immigration policy depends on the insight of its effect on the United States national security. Further, during the first address of the current US President Donald Trump, the issue of changing immigration policy was raised. According to his explanation, he elaborated that by enforcing the immigration laws – there should be increased security along the USA border, an increase of Americans wages, help to the unemployed citizens, and, above all, improved the American community’s safety. Moreover, immigration policies play a significant role in supporting the national and international security priorities as well as promoting systems screen of immigrants, refugees to have threats controlled out of the national socio-political agenda. The American history of immigration has provided an integration of diversification of different groups of people across the world. In most cases, migration is usually linked with terrorism, increased criminality, which gives a perception that immigration contributes to public security threats. RecommendationImmigration is essential to national interests of nations. Therefore, there is a need for the redesigning and simplifying the countries’ immigration systems, and the United States in particular. According to Chacón (2006), it is pointed out that majority of immigrants was removed from the USA system in a given year; this system achieved the destruction of noncitizen’s immigration laws. Therefore, this study holds the opinion that the removal of such citizens will not help in reducing the domestic crimes and prevention of undocumented migration. Also, this study recommends on the need to creating an independent agency that deals with labor markets and immigration, and as well to consider making adjustments in various levels of admissions in the following streams: unemployment, labor market needs, and the changing demographic and economic trends. Further, to ensure national security, there is a great need for authentication and implementation of immigration reforms and policies. The forceful formulation of immigration policy to curb national security provides that laws are not high enough to attain national security (Chacón, 2006)ConclusionThe migration process across the globe faced many issues. They include: economic, internal, and societal challenges as well as public safety. It creates many problems that threaten society, economy and the internal security at large. Regarding the financial security, it is out of order to consider immigration as a security threat and fail to appreciate various benefits that immigration has on national development. Immigration increases the employment opportunities which, as a result, improve the national economy of the concerned economy. Also, contrary to the public opinion that foreigners pose a high risk of public security, the government does too little to separate immigration and criminality. Therefore, it is harmful to label immigration as a significant national security threat. The argument of the immigrant as an undeserving group of people often leads to racism and xenophobic attitudes. The United States is therefore challenged to frequently consider its essential values and reorganize the agenda of national security, both at local and international levels. ReferencesAlden, C., & Aran, A. (2016). Foreign policy analysis: new approaches. Routledge.Chacón, J. M. (2006). Unsecured borders: Immigration restrictions, crime control and national security. Conn. L. Rev., 39, 1827.Franzblau, K. J. (1997). Immigration’s impact on US national security and foreign policy. Washington, DC: US Commission on Immigration Reform.International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2010. World Migration Report Koven, S. G., & Götzke, F. (2010). Introduction in American Immigration Policy (pp. 1-17). Springer New York.Ortega, F., & Peri, G. (2013). The effect of income and immigration policies on international migration. Migration Studies, 1(1), 47-74.Pisleag, T. (2016). Security between National and International. Acta Universitatis Danubius. Relationes Internationales, 9(2).Weiner, M. (1993). “Security, Stability, and International Migration.” International Security 17(3), pp.91-126.